People on board

HARLING, Craven

Craven Harling was born on the 19th of September 1876 in Sladen Bridge, Haworth, Yorkshire to John Harling and Mary Turner. He was baptised the following August in the Stanbury Wesleyan Baptist Church with his sister, Emma, who had been born in 1865. There do not appear to be any other children. In 1881 the family were living in Lidget, Oakworth and John was an Agricultural Labourer. In 1891 John was a ‘Curator’, no further details, while Emma worked as a ‘Mill Hand Winder’ and Craven, aged fourteen, was a ‘Mill Hand Jobber’.

In 1901 Emma and Craven were alone in Lidget, she a Housekeeper and he an ‘Office Clerk Worsted Mill’. The following year Emma married Fred Wright and they continued living in Lidget. In 1903 Craven Harling married Lucy Jane Driver and in 1911 they were living in Albert Road, Blackpool. His occupation was ‘Company House Keeper’ and there were no children.

He enlisted in the Manchester Regiment in October 1915 (Number 39339) and was later transferred to the Royal Defence Corps. He was sent to Ireland in May 1918 and was stationed in Buttevant in County Cork. He was returning on leave when he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October. The Keighley News of the 19th of October reported that his wife Lucy had sent a telegram to the barracks on Saturday to enquire if he had sailed on the Leinster, receiving the reply that he had. Craven Harley’s body was never recovered but his name is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton, on the Oakworth War Memorial and on the Wesleyan Roll of Honour in Oakworth Methodist Church.